Graphic by Isabelle Peterson ’28
BY SARAH BERGER ’27
A&E EDITOR
Mitski’s new album, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me,” focuses on the imagined life of a lonely woman. It is her first album in three years, releasing quietly following her last album “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.”
Although the album is a new narrative, it shares many themes with her previous work. Many of the songs focus on changing yourself in order to be loved, being an outsider, and not understanding life. However, this album is particularly notable for its heavy emphasis on loneliness. Previously, Mitski has expressed feeling like an outcast, but her music has never embodied it so heavily. In past songs “Townie,” “Washing Machine Heart,”, and “Love me More,” she writes about the perils of interaction and flirts with the idea of reclusion. In “Nothing’s About to Happen To Me,” she actually is alone, grappling with all that it entails.
The lead single, “Where’s my phone?” is an anthem for the digital age. Few artists are able to capture the fogginess of living half online, half in the — disappointing, misunderstood — flesh, but Mitski is up to the challenge.
Mitski has always walked a fine line between emotional vulnerability and dramatics, between honest and tumblr-esque. There are a few times her lyricism crosses over into the sophomoric, or at the very least the cliché. This is particularly evident in “Rules,” where she sings “But I'm only crying 'cause it feels good / I'll have a new haircut, I will be somеbody else / And when I lеave my body / Please pretend that you don't see / How I'm no longer there behind my eyes.” Or in “Dead Woman,” “Would you have liked me better if I'd died / So you could tell my story the way it ought to be?” That said, reading these lyrics on the page doesn’t give the same impression as hearing them out loud, sung in Mitski’s haunting voice, accompanied by her beautiful melodies. She could make the ABCs into a profound work of art.
Although there may be thematic parallels with Mitski’s earlier work, there are clear musical differences apparent in her newest album. “If I Leave” will certainly be a hit for everyone who was grabbed by “First Love/Late Spring.” It’s a lovely album to put on during a rainy drive or when you want to commiserate with someone else about things just feeling off. Mitski has always had a talent for conveying depth of emotion, and that gift continues to follow her throughout the entirety of the album.
Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact checking.
